These restored buses are old-school

NORFOLK, Mass. — There are two of them with a third on the way — rare restored school buses from the 1930s.

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By
Peter C.T. Elsworth
Posted Mar. 9, 2014 @ 12:01 am

NORFOLK, Mass. — There are two of them with a third on the way — rare restored school buses from the 1930s.

And their connection to the Holmes family is not hard to see — about 175 Holmes Bus Service school buses lined up outside the maintenance facility next to the former family farm.

“My grandfather got into the school bus business in 1932,” said Tim Holmes, 39. He said he bought a school bus and one of the two existing school routes at that time.

The yellow-and-black 1932 International school bus celebrates his grandfather’s legacy. He said he and his father, James, bought the former Garfield, Kan., school bus on eBay in 2009. He said they took about three years to restore it and it is now identified with the name of his grandfather’s former company: W.T. Holmes Transportation Co. Inc. of Norfolk, Mass.

At the same time, it was not the first one they restored, having already brought a 1932 Ford school bus “in poor condition” from Hyannis, Mass., back to life back in the early 1990s. That one is identified with a local community, the City Mills School District. And in another garage, the red body of a 1933 Chevrolet school bus awaits restoration. “It used to belong to a fire chief,” Holmes said by way of explaining the color.

The distinctive School Bus Yellow — a mixture of yellow and orange — was mandated in 1939 because it is noticed in the peripheral vision faster than any other color, including red. And the contrasting black lettering is easiest to see in the half light of early morning.

“We did everything here except the engine work,” said Holmes of the 1932 International, noting the original had been very rusted. One quirk they kept from the original was the sizable bullet hole in the side of the hood. “We found the lead in the valve cover,” he said.

He said the work took a couple of winters, noting there is a fair amount of down time in the school bus business. He said it was busy from 7 to 9 a.m. and again from 2 to 4 p.m. with the intervening time dedicated to maintenance and repairs. “There’s a fair amount of time to get some stuff done,” he said.

He said working on the International was hampered by the lack of parts. He said limited numbers of the buses were produced in the first place and most were run into the ground and used for parts before being scrapped. “A restored school bus is not something you see very often,” he said.

He pointed out the seats and said they had only one metal frame to work with. The rest were fabricated and they decided to put in one less row than the original to allow adults to sit in it. The bus has only one door — there isn’t one on the driver’s side — and Holmes noted the handle that raises the flat windshield about 3 inches for ventilation.

“It wasn’t built for speed,” said, noting 35 mph was about top speed.

The 1932 Ford bus is mostly restored from the original, but Holmes pointed out the wooden roof complete with beams, which he said they had to replace. This bus has a driver’s side door on the other side, which has a low set window so the driver can see onto the sidewalk, that can only be operated by the driver. The seating is also different from the International, with bench seats lining the sides facing in, and rows of two seats running down the center.

Holmes added that the1933 bus will be the last they restore. “That’s it for me,” he said, adding he would be focusing on other projects.

The buses are only part of the collections belonging to the Holmes family. “My Dad has been collecting since he was 15 years old,” said Tim of his 72-year-old father. In addition, he said his brother Brian, 47, was also a collector.

Indeed, the 1932 International is housed in a room at the Holmes Bus Service headquarters that is full of auto memorabilia, in addition to a 1966 Cobra that he said was original (“pure British aluminum”) and an antique Midget racer that belongs to Brian. Meanwhile, around the walls were ranged commercial signs for such companies as Greyhound, Chevrolet and John Deere. Indeed, John Deere artifacts, antique pedal tractors as well as full size, restored antique tractors and other vehicles form a major part of the collection.

Many are housed in garages around the property, along with many other artifacts. They include four Allan Herschell Co. 16-gauge miniature trains, an antique sleigh and a veritable pile of antique pedal cars in the attic of a former chicken shed.